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Steelers fans on the road....some are a disgrace

So I had the pleasure of welcoming Steeler Nation to my current city of residence this past weekend (Dallas) and I have to say I was a bit shocked by how obnoxious some of our fans act on the road. I fully support the outward display of Steelers Pride and letting the presence of the Nation be felt throughout the city. I loved seeing all the Terrible Towels out and about on Friday and Saturday Night. However, it appears that some small but significant percentage of our fan base needs to learn that they are representing more than themselves when on the road. These people come to a city intent on "taking it over". To them this includes getting completely blitzed and becoming incredibly obnoxious to everyone around them. They think that just because they put down 1K or more to make the trip they are entitled to act any way they want. I had a very large "jaba-like" sweat pants wearing Pittsburgh guy piss his pants in our downtown Dallas fan club. This guy didn't even realize it and had to be told to clean up. I was pushing to have him kicked out but his buddies promised to take care of it. Also experienced a group of older women who were completely trashed and picking fights with people. Men should not hit women but these ladies were taking complete advantage of that. If they were men they would have been lit up by someone.

We need to do some policing within our own ranks to curb this problem. I was in NOLA 2 years ago for the Halloween game and this didn't seem to be as big of a problem then. The atmosphere in NOLA was great and while there was plenty of alcohol everyone was there to have a good time and were not so brazenly obnoxious. Maybe it's because it's Dallas and admittedly this place sucks for visitors, however when traveling for games we represent not only ourselves, but the Steeler Nation and the city of Pittsburgh too no matter what city it is. I found my self apologizing to people and embarrassed. I think this might be becoming a systemic problem that we need to address with some negative reinforcement when we see it going down.

I've had Steeler fans tossed from Three Rivers and Heinz because they were being belligerent to opposing teams' fans. It's unacceptable to throw food items, beer, or any other article at a fan because they cheer for another team. It is even more unacceptable to comment about a person's girl friend, wife or mother in a sexually negative way and I have had no problem having these fans escorted out of the stadium for being @ssclowns.

Some people believe that it is okay to behave like a neanderthal towards fans of opposing teams and that's just wrong. I wish they would grow up.

As I get older, I notice lots of obnoxious folks even at home games. It's the same at home or on the road. And it's all types of fans, not just Steelers fans.

I think more people binge drink nowadays versus many years ago. And alcohol is usually involved when people are obnoxious.

I remember going to games as a kid, Steelers, Pirates, Pens on occassion. And there was always some loud and obnoxious guy around. It was usually just 1 guy. But nowadays there's a lot of those guys. They're out in force. It's become socially acceptable to be sloppy drunk in public.

The last game I was at, there were a group of about 10-15 guys that couldn't have seen most of the game. They were so busy leaving to buy beers. They each probably had 10+ beers during the game. I don't get it, but to each his own. Guess these guys weren't really there for the game. Moreso for the experience. This particular group seemed pretty jovial. But that much alcohol doesn't agree with everyone and not all drunks are happy.

There should be a simple rule. If you're not a happy drunk, you shouldn't drink in public. That would probably fix half of society's problems.

the problem is that 98 out of 100 Steelers fans can be well-behaved and respectful but it's only the actions of the two idiots that people remember.

I have seen this myself, here in FL. You can easily tell which Steeler fans live down here and which still live in Pgh and just came down for the game. Those who live here have learned to be more respectful and friendly. Those making the trip tend to be as described by the OP. ALL fan bases have their jerk fans. Some have more than others. As stated, it's totally cool to represent and wear the colors proudly, it's a whole other kettle of fish for fans to act like a-holes. I can't be too critical of the Burgers who act the jerk; until I moved out of WPA I was probably one of them. But once you move to a place on the ocean, you learn that being crass to opposing fans is not the way to go through life.

But I have to say: I have never witnessed a Steeler fan so out of control that he p-ssed himself and didn't even know it. What a way to go through life. Unreal.

We have seahawks fans here in seattle berate us when we are losing (they're still bitter), we mess with their heads when we completely ignore them OR even clap when they score 50 . We are soooooo much better than them! HA!